FLOOR 21

by Jason Luthor

  “What can we do, Jackie?”

  “Why is everyone acting like I’m the crazy one around here? We have to try and stop the source of the Creep!”

  He waves me off as he continues racing downward. “It could be anywhere, Jackie.”

  “Dad, stop.” He keeps going, and finally I have to scream, “Stop!”

  He pauses with a heave, but just barely turns to look at me. “What, Jacko?”

  “You’re not stupid. Mom told me you’re, like, the expert on this stuff. I know you know where the source of this is coming from.”

  “Jackie, it’s the largest single invasion of Creep we have on record. I have ideas, but I’m not about to get you involved with them.”

  “Fine,” I agree, shrugging my shoulders. “Then I’m not moving. I’m sitting right here until the Creep gets me. How you like them apples?”

  He tries to grab for me, but I raise my bat. Of course I’m not going to hit him. Duh. I just have to, you know, show I’m serious. “Dad,” I tell him, “I’m not going anywhere. We have to fix this.”

  For a minute he looks at me, then back down the stairs, then back at me. Even behind his mask, I can tell he’s giving up. “What’s happening right now is what we call an emotional resonance cascade. The Creep feeds on human emotions, like I told you. Exceptionally powerful human emotions, though, can ‘resonate’ through the Creep. That causes a cascade in which, as one part of the Creep gets agitated, another part gets agitated. Normally it wears itself out. This one isn’t.”

  “Why? We solve that; we save the world. Or at least the Tower. But that’s basically the world, am I right?”

  He just shakes his head. “The reason this cascade isn’t failing is because someone is keeping it going. Someone is causing it to continue. Someone in a lot of pain.”

  “A person? Like, a human? One of us?”

  “Well, sort of. They used to be.”

  “Wait.” I look past him, down the stairs, then back up the hall. “Dad, where’s the source of the cascade coming from now?”

  “Want to take a guess?”

  “No.” I sigh. Naturally. Of course. Of course, this is my life. “Floor 16?”

  “Right.”

  “I thought . . . Dad, you told me Sally was just a bad story parents told their kids.”

  “Would you have really been able to sleep well at night if I’d told you that living people could be infested under the right circumstances, and that for over a century, we’ve isolated the west wing specifically because she can consciously control the Creep?”

  “Daaaamn it,” I cry as I drop my head. “She can do what?”

  “Well, she’s awake now, so that means she can consciously interact with the Creep. Normally people absorbed into the Creep die—you know that. When they come into general contact with the Creep, it has psychological effects on them. In rare cases it grows on them, and they become a single being in a symbiotic relationship. Sally’s a little different. She’s still consciously aware of herself and her surroundings, sort of. As long as she doesn’t get emotionally agitated, she’s fine. Once she does, though, you have to get her under control.”

  “And how do we do that exactly?”

  “Last time it took a hundred men and a lot of firepower. This time I just need to get this into her,” he says, reaching into a pouch in his tactical vest and removing a needle. The fluid inside seems to glow slightly as he waves it around before putting it back in place. “We’ve been working on this a long time. When introduced into the Creep, it has a pretty significant effect. Unfortunately we don’t have the chemicals to make much of it, so we can only produce slight doses. This will be enough to put down Sally, though.”

  “So when Sally goes down, so will the infestation?”

  He nods. “She’s the only reason that it’s still going.”

  I take in a deep breath, then tap the flame gun still hanging at my waist. “Guess I’ll need this, too.”

  “As much as I’ll need this,” he replies, hefting his flamethrower. He pauses for a second when he does, then lowers it. “Actually, champ,” he continues as he pulls out the needle again, “you better take this.”

  “Wait. Why?”

  “Because I’m the one carrying the heavy-duty weapon. I can keep her down with this, but someone’s going to need to use that needle.”

  “You . . . you want me to inject her?”

  “Scared?”

  Jerkface. That’s all he really needs to say. “No,” I scowl, scooping the needle from him and shoving it into the satchel at my side. “All right, well, c’mon, let’s hurry to the end of the world.”

  See, now the plan is all set. We’re good. Really. We get down to Floor 16, everything’s fine, and then we open the door onto the hallway. What do you think we see?

  Nothing but guns everywhere.

  We just see nothing but Security, a whole row of them aiming at us. Then, in the middle, is a guy dressed in this blue skintight uniform. It’s kinda like the ones the people on Floor 1 wear, just a different color. Thing is, I recognize him.

  My dad does, too. “Judas Abbott,” he says through his mask.

  “Doctor Coleman,” he says with that smug look of his. His bone-white hair is really in fine form today, like he made sure to put extra conditioner in it. “We knew you’d be heading this way.”

  Dad slips off his mask. “You knew we’d come this direction. How?”

  “As much as I hate to admit it, we’re not equipped to deal with the Creep without you. You are, of course, the only researcher with your level of knowledge on the subject. Be that as it may, we’re not idiots. We analyzed your files and decoded your suspicions about where the emotional resonance cascade might be stemming from.”

  “And you want my help.”

  “But, of course, my friend.”

  “What about my daughter?”

  Abbott pushes his fingers to his face, squeezing at the bridge of his nose. “Authority is prepared to rehear her case.”

  “I want her declared innocent, Abbott, or you can deal with Sally yourself.” For the first time in a long time, my dad’s acting really cool. Too bad it has to come during the Armageddon.

  “You know I have no say in her verdict.”

  “I know Authority is listening to us right now. Or aren’t you wearing a listener?”

  Abbott looks really annoyed by this, and he taps at his eardrum, as if he’s listening in on a different conversation. After a second he looks back up at us, faking that gross creeper smile our way. “Congratulations, doctor. Authority will withdraw the accusation of Violation of Thought.”

  “And the other accusations?”

  “Doctor, they were accusations of the lower order. Surely this suffices.”

  I look up at my dad. “What does that mean?”

  He smiles. “They can’t afford to let you go without some form of punishment. If they did, Authority wouldn’t be Authority. They have to live by their code. But you can only be sentenced to Reinforcement for a violation of a higher order.”

  “Wait. I remember when Danny was Reinforced. Why did he . . . ?”

  Dad looks at me and takes a knee, wrapping an arm around me. “Your trial was broadcast throughout Floor 1. They all are. Normally everyone gets a sentence of a higher order because they always find a way. It makes for good entertainment.”

  “What?”

  “Now that Authority’s declared that you can go free, they can market it on Floor 1 as showing their great mercy. Believe me, it works out for them, too.”

  I want to say, this is completely screwed up. Instead, I just nod. “Okay.”

  Dad gets back up to face an eminently bored Abbott and says, “I concede.”

  “Fantastic,” he says with a nod as he beckons toward his Security team. They circle us like wolves and push us forward, Dad leading the way as he guides us all deep into the maze that is the west wing of Floor 16. He replaces his mask back on his head as we go, his weapon clutched in his hand
. As we move, large clusters of the Creep are visibly breaking through the floor or walls. Security fans out to drive it back, igniting huge patches of growth in flames.

  Dad points from one guy to the other. “This is all being broadcast. Abbott’s wearing a listener, which does more than just listen. It records everything visual, too.”

  “What? We have the technology for that? Why don’t the Scavengers wear them?”

  “Who says they don’t?” he asks with a heavy breath. “They just don’t know it. We get constant feeds of the Scavenging. You know how everyone on the lower floors gets to play the games and do the tallies? How they celebrate when the Scavengers are out there?”

  “Yeah, duh.”

  “Floor 1 has a different way of doing it. Each person on a scavenging team has a listener they’re not aware of. Secretly, Authority enjoys it when a few Scavengers die. It keeps people invested in it, gives it high stakes. So they don’t necessarily give the teams all the best technology to survive with. Everything is divided in this tower, though, Jackie. The video feeds go through a central planner. He decides what looks like scientific material and what looks like good entertainment. If it’s scientific it gets sent to me. If it’s entertaining it gets sent to editors that cut it and make it look good for the broadcasts. After that he forgets whatever he saw by stuffing himself with Voluptas.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because this Tower survives by forgetting the past, Jackie. That’s just how it is. People on the lower levels don’t have to care about it so much because they’re kept ignorant. On Floor 1, though, people are exposed to a lot of sensitive information. That information even filters down all the way to Floor 4, to people like me or the Morale officers. That’s why we have access to Voluptas. Your mom pretends to take it so that Authority will assume she doesn’t know anything. If you know too much, you’re a threat.”

  “I don’t get it, Dad. Why do we have to forget?”

  He just shakes his head. “I don’t know, Jackie. The reason itself was forgotten a long time before I entered Science. All I know is that something happened way back when that got us here, and Authority is dead set on making sure we don’t get too curious about what’s in the Darkness. Because they truly believe that one day, we’re going to get saved from the skies. Just like the verse says, ‘They will be taken out of Darkness and into the light.’”

  “That’s pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  He laughs. “Yeah, well . . . I’m not going to argue that.”

  It’s fairly obvious we’re getting into some far-out sections of the Tower. All the doors are lit red, which means that nobody’s living here. I mean, just the fact that the shutters aren’t working should tell you that it’s been a while since anyone has done maintenance in this wing.

  It’d be a lie if I said that’s the worst part, though.

  I look up as we’re walking and catch sight of a big Creep growth. At first I just shrug. It’s Creep, big deal, right? That’s sorta what Floor 16 does. Creep.

  Then I take a good look inside.

  It’s a guy. Well, a skeleton, and it’s pretty clear he’s covered in what used to be Security gear. I mean, the helmet’s halfway evaporated and the clothing’s all ripped up, but it’s obviously Security armor. It almost makes me gag before I can look away, and Dad grabs my shoulder to brace me.

  “Hold on there, kid,” he says, squeezing me with his hand. “That’s just a natural effect of the Creep absorbing nutrients.”

  “God, it’s like it’s feeding.”

  “Well. It kind of is.”

  That doesn’t help, and I’m about to wretch again when we all stumble forward. The floor shakes and sends us tripping, but apparently, I should give Abbott more credit, since he manages to be the only person that stays on his feet.

  I mean, he can’t be a Scavenger commander just because he’s a total ass.

  Everyone recovers quick enough to see a flood of Creep rush into the upcoming intersection. The stuff’s like a living wall, and it slows and recedes until the figure of a person is all that’s left. She’s got long hair, like, down to her knees. It does this creepy bangs thing, where it covers the upper part of her face, moving down over her eyes before flooding backward along her back. The girl’s skinny, too. Whatever skin she has looks like living Creep, and it’s pulled so tight that you can make out the bones in her chest and hands.

  This is what happens when you take a diet too far, kids.

  And I’m not sure what she’s wearing, but it looks like some sort of sundress. I don’t know how it’s kept any color, but it’s still a faded pink. The thing that really stands out about her, though? That smile. She just keeps grinning at us with this smile that stretches too far across her face, like she’s tearing the skin at the edges of her mouth from smiling too wide. It gives us a sight of her teeth, and they’re like dull lightbulbs, just this dingy yellow color.

  It gives me the creeps. “I can’t believe she’s alive,” I say.

  Dad shakes his head. “She’s not. Not the way we think of living.”

  The wall next to us suddenly bursts apart like an egg, Creep lashing at us. It pummels one of the guards and pins him to the wall, the stuff cascading over him until he’s buried. Dad turns along with some of the other guards, and they just let loose with a wave of fire. Long streaks of flame spew across the twitchy muscle, and it releases this howl that shakes the ground underneath me. It ignites in orange blossoms and pulls away, ashy gray globs of it falling to the ground as it releases its prey. The Security guy that got hit stumbles back to his feet, and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not that he survived. Creepy Sally relentlessly plods toward us as tendrils of muscle start flying from the ground, whipping at the team’s legs.

  I just get away as one of the men gets caught by the calf, his leg twisting at unnatural angles as the Creep hauls him off. The guy’s just about to get picked off when Abbott unsheathes this long sword. His pace becomes thunder as his thumb flips a switch on its hilt, the blade igniting in orange and red like a beam of living fire. Abbott moves faster than even the Creep can, and he slices the tendril in half before it can even react to him, the long fleshy stalk burning off black smoke. Without realizing it I backpedal, kinda just gasping at the sight. I get it now.

  This is why he’s a Scavenger commander.

  There’s a sudden crack along the wall, and I dance away just before it bursts open with a long Creep tendril that cuts the air where my head used to be. As I stumble back, I hit the ground, pain shooting up my back as I do.

  Dad twists toward me, rushing to grab my hand. “Jackie!” he screams, but as he turns, a hole bursts open from the rooftop. A tendril whips downward and grabs him by the arm, hauling him back toward the wall. His rifle hits the ground as he wrestles with the creature, screaming as he tries to keep himself from getting pulled into the ceiling. I don’t have time to think as I grab the bat at my side and fly into the air, the hard edge of my weapon pounding into the muscle and tissue that makes up the Creep. The thing shudders at the impact, and I go rolling along the ground, sliding to a stop as I watch my dad collapse onto the floor. Freed, he grabs for his gun, brushing the attack off like it’s nothing and spewing a torrent of fire into the air behind me.

  I roll toward him and turn to watch as a wall of Creep at my back ignites into fire, its pink skin searing black under the heat. The thing shudders before collapsing to the ground, exploding into a hundred disgusting chunks that splatter along the wall and floor. Dad hauls me to my feet, and we rush toward the Security team, which is just lighting up the hallway. Abbott’s there in the center, trying to cut his way through wave after wave of living tissue, but Sally doesn’t seem to have a limit to how much she can summon.

  Dad squeezes my arm and glances down at me. “You’ve still got the injection, right?”

  “Yeah, Dad,” I nod, tapping the bag on my hip. “I’m ready.”

  “You’ve got to stick close and don’t
worry about me when we go in. I’ll get you near to Sally.”

  I nod, and he yanks me forward, bringing up his flamethrower as we run. We cross by Abbott, who’s busy swinging that sword of his, and leap over a huge tendril of Creep that bursts from the wall and swipes at our legs. Dad squeezes the trigger as we come within feet of her, but she counters with an endless wave of twitching muscle that meets us halfway. Flame and flesh battle each other for a second, and then I notice the roof above me and the walls at my side lighting up in an inferno. The rest of the Security team is dousing the hallway, and the entire area is erupting like a scene from hell.

  Dad shouts at me, “Go, Jackie!” and I nod. Creepy Sally seems as if she’s distracted for the first time since we’ve got here. Maybe even she can’t deal with this much firepower. I duck beneath the web of thin stalks that she’s weaving across the hall in an attempt to create a wall of Creep between herself and the team, then leap at her. She doesn’t even see me.

  I’m inches from her when I’m caught around the waist. I can’t hold back the squeal I let out as I feel my body suddenly collapsing beneath the pressure of a meaty limb that bursts out of the floor. She holds me just outside of arm’s distance, too far away for me to inject her.

  But not too far for my bat.

  I rear back and swing with every bit of power my muscles can give me, absolutely crushing the side of her skull. Her head rocks backward and she drops me, her hand going to her face. It’s the first time I’ve seen her in pain.

  And she starts crying.

  More like screaming and wailing, but her defenses are down. I start to rush her.

  Then?

  Then the floor beneath us groans like a dying animal before shattering into a hundred pieces, plunging us all downward. Fire, ash, and smoke rain down from above, along with burning muscle and skin. Nothing breaks my fall as I slam hard onto the ground, the breath escaping my lungs as I feel a hard piece of concrete slam into my stomach. I suck wind hard as I flip around, my vision going blurry while the corners of my eyes seem to fill with blackness. For a moment I’m too weak to even twitch my fingers.